Summer 2014: Planetarium schedule spotlights solstice, fractals, lunar exploration and more

Located in ConocoPhillips Integrated Science Building, Room 220, the UAA Planetarium and Visualization Theater hosts regular Friday night shows. The full-dome theater offers viewers an immersive experience, with each show delving into a scientific topic. Most shows are under 30 minutes and followed by a live lecture from distinguished faculty and community experts. Tickets for all planetarium shows, including the summer screenings listed below, are available at UAATix.com.

Friday, May 9 6:30 p.m. - "River of Bears" with Tom Griffin, Alaska Department of Fish & Game Come to Alaska to see the largest gathering of bears in the world! Shot in stunning 4K full-dome video, "River of Bears" takes you to the legendary McNeil River State Game Sanctuary, where more than 100 brown bears congregate each summer to fish, mate and prepare for the harsh Alaska winter. Immerse yourself in this wild setting and learn how the bears navigate one another with remarkable intelligence in order to survive. You will never see these iconic animals the same way again.

8 p.m. - "Origins of Life" with Planetarium Manager Omega Smith This full-dome program deals with some of the most profound questions in the field of life science. Starting with the Big Bang, it deals with prebiotic chemistry in the universe, the formation of stars and planets and the first life on Earth. It covers the great extinctions as well as humanity's search for primitive life beyond the Earth. Featuring many recent discoveries related to life science, this motivational journey demonstrates that if there was ever a time when science was making its greatest advances, it's right now.

Friday, May 30 6:30 p.m. - "Black Holes" with Planetarium Director Erin Hicks "Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity" is a full-dome show from Thomas Lucas Productions, developed in collaboration with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, NOVA and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Narrated by Academy Award-nominated actor Liam Neeson, this cutting-edge production uses high-resolution visualizations to bring the current science of black holes onto the dome. Audiences will be dazzled with striking, immersive animations of star birth and death, the formation of the early universe and the collision of giant galaxies, as well as a simulated flight into the super-massive black hole lurking at the center of our galaxy.

8 p.m. - "Scales of the Universe" with Planetarium Director Erin Hicks How big is the universe? Does it go on forever? What is the most distant object we can see? We'll answer all of these questions and more in a special all-live presentation. Starting from the Earth, we'll fly out of our solar system, beyond our galaxy the Milky Way and to the edge of the universe!

Friday, June 13 6:30 p.m. - "Tilted Solstice" with Planetarium Manager Omega Smith This all-new, all-live presentation about summer solstice and our tilted little world will cover the history, mythology and astronomy behind the longest day of the year. Find out what solstice means for us on Earth and what it's like on other planets.

8 p.m. - Audio Dome: "Trips Through the Cosm" with DJ Wildebeest "Trips Through the Cosm" has been in production for nearly a year and will showcase new visuals and lighting effects never before seen at the UAA planetarium. This show will be a game changer for Audio Dome and one of the last showings. DJ Wildebeest will spin a mix of electro and dubstep, including music by Justice, Zeds Dead, and Deadmau5. "Trips Through the Cosm" runs for 50 minutes and carries seizure, volume and motion sickness warnings.

Friday, June 27 6:30 p.m. - "Nanocam: A trip into biodiversity" with UAA Biological Sciences Professor Caroline Wilson, Ph.D. "Nanocam," the show that shrinks you down to the size of an insect and flies you through the eye of a needle, is a microscopic joyride into the five kingdoms of life. Featuring the latest 3-D animation technology and based on real electron microscope imagery, this show offers a unique, motivating, didactic and funny approach to biology never seen before.

8 p.m. - "Natural Selection" with UAA Biological Sciences Faculty Catherine Pongratz In Victorian times, many physical phenomena had already been discovered and described by natural laws, but life's most eloquent mechanism was still unknown. Join the young Charles Darwin on an adventurous voyage of exploration circumnavigating the world with the H.M.S. Beagle. Hear Darwin himself reveal the simple and beautiful mechanism that explains the evolution of all life on Earth: natural selection.

Friday, July 11 6:30 p.m. - "Back to the Moon for Good" premiere with Planetarium Manager Omega Smith Immerse yourself in a race to return to the moon 40 years after the historic Apollo landings. See how a competition among privately funded international teams is ushering in a new era of lunar exploration. Learn about the moon's resources and discover what humanity's future on the moon might hold. Narrated by Tim Allen, "Back To The Moon For Good" presents the Google Lunar XPRIZE, and the personal stories of competition and collaboration it inspires.

8 p.m. - "Dawn of the Space Age" with Planetarium Manager Omega Smith Relive the excitement of the early days of space exploration, from the launch of the first artificial satellite to the magnificent lunar landings and privately operated space flights. Be immersed and overwhelmed with this most accurate historic reconstruction of man's first steps into space. Who were these men and women who took part in these death-defying endeavors? Witness their drive, their passion and their perseverance to explore in "Dawn of the Space Age."

Friday, July 25 6:30 p.m. - "Dynamic Earth" with Planetarium Manager Omega Smith With visualizations based on satellite monitoring data and advanced supercomputer simulations, this cutting-edge production follows a trail of energy that flows from the sun into the interlocking systems that shape our climate: the atmosphere, oceans and biosphere. Audiences will ride along on swirling ocean and wind currents, dive into the heart of a monster hurricane, come face-to-face with sharks and gigantic whales and fly into roiling volcanoes.

8 p.m. - "Fractal Forest" with Charles Roswell A live DJ will spin music as a mix of fractals, including reels from the planetarium favorite "Fractals Rock" and new creations by the staff and students at the UAA planetarium, plays on the full-dome screen. Fractals are all around us in the natural world, spanning a huge range of scales. The same patterns repeat themselves again and again, from the tiny branching of our blood vessels and neurons to the branching of trees, lightning bolts and river networks.

For more information, including how to become a planetarium member, please visit www.uaa.alaska.edu/planetarium.

July Archive